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Online issues WikiLeaks clarification

Online issues WikiLeaks clarification
ISLAMABAD: The Online News Agency on Friday issued a clarification with regard to a news item that was published on Thursday. The clarification, issued by Siddique Sajid, Editor, Online International News Network, stated that on December 9, 2010, a news item attributed to Online was published in some English and Urdu newspapers with regards to WikiLeaks disclosures regarding the Indian interference in Balochistan and Waziristan, Indian Army and Israel. “We had lifted this news by searching various search engines as part of regular scanning process for finding news about WikiLeaks disclosures, which has become a hot topic of every newspaper,” Sajid said. “We had lifted the news from English newspaper Daily Mail, which had published the news by some foreign journalists with documentary evidence and also put it up on the Internet and Google.” The clarification added: “On Dec 10, some English and Urdu newspapers had criticised us for the report not being accurate and some of them even went to the extent of accusing us of wrong use of WikiLeaks documents for propaganda purposes and that we had released a planted news item.” The news agency said the truth was just the opposite and “if anyone goes on Google and writes ‘WikiLeaks Leak About India, Israel And Afghanistan’, one would be able to get the same news we got.” Online added it was attaching the news it had downloaded from the Internet so that the matter was clarified. “We had not received any notice or written compliant from WikiLeaks spokesman,” it said. “The only mistake on our part was that we had not mentioned the link or source of the news for which we apologise.” The News replies: The News has already printed a clarification of this report. We would also like to offer our apologies to our readers for publishing this unverified news item.

ISLAMABAD: The Online News Agency on Friday issued a clarification with regard to a news item that was published on Thursday. The clarification, issued by Siddique Sajid, Editor, Online International News Network, stated that on December 9, 2010, a news item attributed to Online was published in some English and Urdu newspapers with regards to WikiLeaks disclosures regarding the Indian interference in Balochistan and Waziristan, Indian Army and Israel. “We had lifted this news by searching various search engines as part of regular scanning process for finding news about WikiLeaks disclosures, which has become a hot topic of every newspaper,” Sajid said. “We had lifted the news from English newspaper Daily Mail, which had published the news by some foreign journalists with documentary evidence and also put it up on the Internet and Google.” The clarification added: “On Dec 10, some English and Urdu newspapers had criticised us for the report not being accurate and some of them even went to the extent of accusing us of wrong use of WikiLeaks documents for propaganda purposes and that we had released a planted news item.” The news agency said the truth was just the opposite and “if anyone goes on Google and writes ‘WikiLeaks Leak About India, Israel And Afghanistan’, one would be able to get the same news we got.” Online added it was attaching the news it had downloaded from the Internet so that the matter was clarified. “We had not received any notice or written compliant from WikiLeaks spokesman,” it said. “The only mistake on our part was that we had not mentioned the link or source of the news for which we apologise.” The News replies: The News has already printed a clarification of this report. We would also like to offer our apologies to our readers for publishing this unverified news item.